The Clinical Scholarship Program, co-directed by James Rodrigue, PhD, and Marc Schermerhorn, MD, pairs all first-year categorical general surgery residents with a faculty research mentor who guides the residents throughout the year as they acquire the skills to develop and implement a clinical research project.

Residents are given one month of protected time during the second half of the first year in which to complete their project. The objectives of the Clinical Scholarship Program are to provide residents with a robust foundation for scholarship early in their training, increase their academic productivity, and enhance their opportunities to compete for national grants. By providing this experience early in the training program, our goal is to facilitate residents’ interests in scholarship, research, and an academic career.

PROGRAM OBJECTIVES

1. Provide a robust foundation for scholarship for resident trainees

2. Increase academic productivity

3. Enhance resident competitiveness for national grants

RESIDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Understand the importance of scholarly activity

Increase knowledge of the basic elements of study design and clinical research methodology

Become familiar with institutional and national clinical databases

Learn how to apply basic statistical methods to analyze research data

Increase awareness of the ethical issues surrounding the conduct of clinical research

Better understand the requirements for the protection of human research participants